Ultimatum !!! Help with tank !

[Pataphysicist]

I add 5 Cap fulls of prime on my water changes ( 250 G worth of conditioner ). Here is the process i take on my water changes .

- Shut the whole system down ( Filters/Heaters/Circulation Pumps/Lights )
- Start draining tank 30 % Most of the time ( Twice a week sometimes , Usually just once )
- Add 5 Cap fulls of Prime ( rated for 250 G )
- Start filling tank straight from tap water
- Add another 5 Cap fulls of prime after topped off with water ( Double dosage just in case )

At this point my water is already clouding up a lot, system still off. I wait 5 minutes then i turn everything on. Thats pretty much everything.

Also i don't do filter cleaning too often on my Bio filtration. All i change is my Mechanical/ Chemical once a month. I don't touch my bio filtration at all, just once every 3-4 months i rinse them with tank water. So you think 3 times a week with 10-15% water changes should b better?

 

[RD.]

Ok, that should definitely rule out any NH3 residual. I don't see any reason to double dose, but that shouldn't be causing your tank to cloud up, either. Perhaps try just adding 5 caps on your next water change before you start adding tap water, and see if that changes anything? 30-50% water change, with that much Prime, should most certainly rule out ammonia. Another thing that I would personally do is add a Seachem Ammonia Alert, just to make certain that those $5 Prime refills, really do contain Prime. http://www.seachem.com/Products/product_pages/AmmoniaAlert.html
No offense to the vendor, but it wouldn't be the first time that I have seen LFS items sold in bulk as one thing, turn out to be another.

Otherwise, from the info that you have supplied thus far, I'm stumped.

 

[jaws7777]

I wouldnt trust someone selling prime as a refill. Try using safe it should last you allot longer

 

[tanyaelec11]

i would also not trust the source of the prime if your double dosing there should be no reason for a ammonia spike. Also maybe look into using seachem matrix to your filtration. I noticed a huge difference within a week using a tub of that.

 

[Fat Homer]

Just also want to add that ONE anubias plant will not make much if any difference to your water quality... they are a notoriously slow growing plant, and one plant in a 220 ain't going to do too much... i have a tank 200G filled with Anubias and i can tell you it barely effects my water quality if at all...

 

[fuzzlebug]

If the water is only cloudy after the big water changes then a drip would definitely help. I know you said you can't do a drip, but what about this idea: fit a T valve to a clean water source, run a line to a small(5-10gal) holding tank(could be a plastic bucket) have the water run over some chemical filtration, I.e lava rock or carbon, just something to remove any potential nasties, chuck a small heater in the bucket and then put a small dosing pump in there too and run it to the tank. And for the excess water, you could use another dosing pump in the sump to drain the water out, or if you have a better solution, then use that one as this is fairly crude. This means you can do constant small water changes.

 

[Pataphysicist]

Main reason why i said i couldnt use a drip system was because i dont use a sump. I run canisters, and my tank is not drilled so the excess water would just give me headaches :/ I mean the only other thing that i can think off was using Kordons Ammonia remover instead of prime on saturday. Water still got super cloudy after water change , so still tells me am killing some BB by just pouring in tap water. I even had a 55 G drum before filled with water for a week, then pump water in the tank when i did water changes, still got cloudy. i don't know what else to do. I always see ppl do water changes and water never gets cloudy :/

 

[RD.]

Impossible to have free ammonia issues, if using 10 capfuls of Seachem Prime on that small of a water change. Absolutely impossible. So either your Prime isn't Prime, or you have something else going on.

This is a no brainer, start by ruling out ammonia.

1.Buy a Seachem Ammonia Alert for $10 and stick it in your tank.
2. Buy a container of Prime from a different source, and use that for your next water change.

Then you can rule out ammonia spikes due to chloramine, and/or inadequate (watered down) water conditioner from your LFS.

If that doesn't resolve the issue you can focus on your bio filtration, because if everything else checks out then you most likely have an issue with bio load vs bio filtration.

And as Homer stated, adding a single anubias to a 220 isn't going to amount to jack squat with regards to improving water quality.

 

[skjl47]

Hello; After looking at this thread again, some things come to mind.
First; I may have missed it, but do not recall seeing that the OP actually tested the water for ammonia?
Next; The tank pictured, if I recall correctly, does not have substrate such as gravel.

Next; There is a fairly heavy bio-load from the fish and likely from excess or uneaten food bits.

Next; The OP uses water conditioner that should take care of ammonia unless it is somehow bad.

Assumption; The issue may not be ammonia. Could it be that as fresh water is poured into the tank, the aggitation from this is stirring up the detritus that collects in the nooks and crannies. That this detritus has a lot of partly decayed food bits and fish waste. That when stirred up the detritus breaks up into a cloud of small particles. This cloud of particles then feeds a bacterial bloom for several hours????

 

[RD.]

I would think that would be pretty obvious, wouldn't it? I mean there really isn't a lot of nooks a crannies in this tank to start with, it's bare bottom with some fist sized round river rocks in the center area. That, and he has what appears to be 4 power heads pointed directly at the river rocks. I don't see how a build up of detritus is possible in this set up.